Flodesk sells on design. The templates look considered, the flat fee is easy to budget for, and for a solo business with a small list it's a genuinely pleasant tool to use. The trouble starts when the list grows and the business needs actual segmentation and automation logic rather than a handful of pretty workflows triggered by a single tag.
Kit takes the opposite approach. It's built around creators and small businesses who want tagging, sequences, and visual automation that can branch on real subscriber behaviour, and it leans deliberately toward plain, text-forward email because that's what performs in the inbox. If you've built your brand around Flodesk's design polish, this is the trade-off you need to accept going in, not discover after the fact.
This guide covers the mechanical move — contacts, workflows, forms, and the checkout question — plus the one thing people underestimate: rebuilding a heavily designed Flodesk email as a plain Kit email isn't a copy-paste job, it's a rewrite.
How long this takes
2–3 hours
Most of that time goes into rebuilding automations and repointing forms, not the import itself.
Why switch from Flodesk to Kit?
Switch if…
- You need branching automation and tag-based segmentation that Flodesk’s single-workflow model doesn’t support.
- Your list has grown to the point where Flodesk’s flat fee no longer looks like the bargain it was at launch.
- You want to sell digital products with more flexibility than Flodesk Checkout offers.
- You want deliverability practices built around plain-text-forward email rather than heavily designed HTML.
- You need proper subscriber scoring, tagging, or a visual automation canvas for a growing funnel.
Stay put if…
- Your brand depends heavily on Flodesk’s design templates and Kit’s plainer aesthetic feels like a step back visually.
- Your list is small and static, and Flodesk’s flat fee is still cheaper than Kit’s per-subscriber pricing at your size.
- You use Flodesk Checkout for simple digital product sales and don’t need Kit Commerce’s extra configuration.
Flodesk vs Kit: the key differences
| What changes | Flodesk | Kit |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat monthly fee, unlimited subscribers | Per-subscriber tiers that rise with list size |
| Template design | Highly polished visual templates | Plain, text-forward editor by default |
| Automation | Single linear workflows | Tag-based visual automations with branching |
| Segmentation | Segments by basic criteria | Tags and fields combined for granular targeting |
| Forms and landing pages | Design-forward, limited logic | Simpler visuals, stronger conditional logic |
| Selling digital products | Flodesk Checkout | Kit Commerce, more setup, more flexibility |
| Deliverability approach | Image-heavy HTML common | Plain-text-leaning, generally favoured by inbox providers |
Before you switch, have this ready
- Admin access to both Flodesk and Kit.
- A written list of every Flodesk workflow, segment, and form currently live.
- Export of subscribers with segments and any custom fields intact.
- A decision on what happens to your Flodesk Checkout products, if you have any.
- DNS access if you want to authenticate a custom sending domain in Kit.
- Two to three hours, since rebuilding designed templates as plain email takes longer than a straight copy.
Step-by-step: Flodesk to Kit
Step 1: Export your subscribers and segments from Flodesk
In Flodesk, go to Audience, select a segment, and use the export option to download it as CSV. Flodesk’s segmentation is lighter than Kit’s tagging system, so export each segment separately rather than trying to pull everything in one undifferentiated file.
Check the export for any custom fields you’ve added — birthday, source, or purchase history fields need to carry across so you can rebuild the same targeting in Kit.
Note who’s unsubscribed in Flodesk. You’ll need that list to suppress them in Kit rather than accidentally re-adding them through a fresh import.
Screenshot
Flodesk Audience segment export screen
Step 2: Set up Kit and create matching tags and fields
In Kit, go to Subscribers → Custom fields and recreate every field you exported from Flodesk. Kit’s model is built around tags rather than segments, so plan how each Flodesk segment becomes one or more Kit tags.
Set up your sending domain authentication in Kit if you’re using a custom domain — it’s a straightforward DNS step, but do it before importing so your first sends aren’t going out unauthenticated.
Decide your tagging convention now. A messy tag structure in Kit is much harder to untangle later than it is to plan properly on day one.
Screenshot
Kit custom fields setup screen
Step 3: Import contacts into Kit
Use Subscribers → Import in Kit and upload each Flodesk segment export separately, tagging subscribers as you bring them in so the segmentation survives the move rather than dissolving into one flat list.
Map custom fields carefully during import — Kit will let you create new fields on the fly, but matching them to fields you’ve already set up avoids duplicate, half-populated fields.
Suppress your Flodesk unsubscribe list in Kit immediately after import, before you send anything, so nobody who opted out in Flodesk receives a first Kit email by mistake.
Screenshot
Kit subscriber import screen with tag assignment
Step 4: Rebuild your workflows as sequences and automations
Screenshot every Flodesk workflow before you start — the trigger, the timing, and the content of each email — because nothing rebuilds itself automatically in Kit.
Simple linear workflows (a welcome series, a nurture sequence) map cleanly onto a Kit sequence. Anything that branches based on subscriber behaviour or tags belongs in Kit’s visual automation builder instead, which is genuinely more capable than Flodesk’s single-path workflows.
Rewrite the emails rather than pasting Flodesk’s designed HTML straight in. Kit performs best with plain, text-forward email, so treat this as an opportunity to strip back the visual design rather than a technical inconvenience.
Test each sequence and automation with your own email address before turning it live, walking through every branch to confirm timing and content land correctly.
Screenshot
Kit visual automation builder with a rebuilt welcome sequence
Step 5: Rebuild forms and landing pages
Kit’s form and landing page builder is simpler visually than Flodesk’s, so expect to simplify your design rather than replicate it pixel for pixel.
Set each new Kit form to apply a tag on signup that matches the automation or sequence you want new subscribers to enter — this is where Kit’s tagging model does the segmentation work Flodesk’s simpler forms couldn’t.
Replace every embedded Flodesk form on your website with the new Kit form code, and test a live submission on each page before moving on.
Screenshot
Kit form builder with tag-on-signup setting
Step 6: Move your Checkout products to Kit Commerce, if applicable
Flodesk Checkout and Kit Commerce are built differently — there’s no direct product import between them, so recreate each product, price point, and delivery method manually in Kit Commerce.
If your products are simple one-off digital downloads, this is usually a short job. If you’ve built upsells or bundles in Flodesk Checkout, budget more time to replicate the logic.
Test a real purchase end to end in Kit Commerce, including the delivery email and any tag applied on purchase, before pointing customers at the new checkout link.
Screenshot
Kit Commerce product setup screen
Step 7: Repoint integrations and cut over
Go through every website embed, link-in-bio tool, and third-party integration that currently points at Flodesk and update it to the Kit equivalent.
Send a real campaign to a small, engaged segment first to check open rates and rendering before widening to your full list — a shift from designed HTML to plain text can change how subscribers respond, and it’s worth seeing that early.
Keep Flodesk active for a couple of weeks after cutover. Any new signup still landing there points to a form or integration you missed, and it’s the cheapest way to catch it before cancelling.
Screenshot
Kit campaign report showing opens for the first test send
Integrations you need to update
Every one of these is a place contacts or data currently flow into Flodesk. Work through the list before you stop watching the old account — a missed form is invisible until someone complains they never got your email.
| Integration | What to do |
|---|---|
| Website signup forms | Replace Flodesk embeds with Kit forms, applying a tag on signup. |
| Squarespace / WordPress | Swap the Flodesk form block or plugin for Kit’s equivalent and test a live submission. |
| Shopify | Connect Kit’s Shopify integration and confirm order and customer sync before disconnecting Flodesk. |
| Link-in-bio tools | Update the signup link destination from Flodesk to the new Kit form URL. |
| Zapier / Make | Rebuild each scenario against the Kit connector, since automations don’t remap automatically. |
| Flodesk Checkout | Rebuild products manually in Kit Commerce — there is no direct product import. |
| Instagram / social bios | Update any linked signup form URL to point at the new Kit form. |
| Course or membership platform | Repoint tag-based enrolment triggers so new members land in Kit rather than Flodesk. |
Troubleshooting: common post-migration problems
Rebuilt emails look plain and unfinished compared to Flodesk
That’s Kit’s deliberate plain-text-forward approach, not a bug. Lean into simpler formatting rather than trying to force Flodesk-style design back in — it tends to perform better in Kit anyway.
Segments didn’t translate into usable Kit tags
Check whether you applied one tag per Flodesk segment on import. If segments overlapped in Flodesk, you may need multiple tags per subscriber to replicate the same targeting.
Automation triggers fire in the wrong order
Kit’s visual automation canvas evaluates conditions differently to Flodesk’s linear workflow. Rebuild the logic as a proper branch rather than a straight sequence with conditions bolted on.
Checkout customers aren’t receiving their product
Confirm the delivery email and tag are attached to the correct Kit Commerce product — this doesn’t carry over from Flodesk Checkout automatically.
Open rates dropped after the first Kit send
Confirm domain authentication is set up correctly in Kit, then send to your most engaged subscribers first and widen gradually rather than blasting the full list.
New signups still appearing in Flodesk
A form or bio link was missed. Check where the new Flodesk contacts came from and update that specific embed or link.
Should you make the switch?
The migration itself is rarely the hard part — it is the automations you rebuild and the forms you forget. If the reasons in the "switch if" list above describe your situation, Kit is worth the afternoon. If you are only moving because you are frustrated with an interface, fix the emails first and keep the platform.
Read both sides before you commit: our Flodesk review covers what you would be giving up, and our Kit review covers what you are buying, including current pricing and where it falls short. Every switch we document is listed on the migration guides hub.